aid of the prophet Hosea.[433] Fable speaks of the wonders wrought by
the golden rod of Mercury. The Gauls and Germans also used the rod for
divination; and there is reason to believe that often God permitted
that the rods should make known by their movements what was to happen;
for that reason they were consulted. Every body knows the secret of
Circe's wand, which changed men into beasts. I do not compare it with
the rod of Moses, by means of which God worked so many miracles in
Egypt; but we may compare it with those of the magicians of Pharaoh,
which produced so many marvelous effects.

Albertus Magnus relates that there had been seen in Germany two
brothers, one of whom passing near a door securely locked, and
presenting his left side, would cause it to open of itself; the other
brother had the same virtue in the right side. St. Augustine says that
there are men[434] who move their two ears one after another, or both
together, without moving their heads; others, without moving it also,
make all the skin of their head with the hair thereon come down over
their forehead, and put it back as it was before; some imitate so
perfectly the voices of animals, that it is almost impossible not to
mistake them. We have seen men speak from the hollow of the stomach,
and make themselves heard as if speaking from a distance, although
they were close by. Others swallow an incredible quantity of different
things, and by tightening their stomachs ever so little, throw up
whole, as from a bag, whatever they please. Last year, in Alsatia,
there was seen and heard a German who played on two French horns at
once, and gave airs in two parts, the first and the second, at the
same time. Who can explain to us the secret of intermitting fevers, of
the flux and reflux of the sea, and the cause of many effects which
are certainly all natural?

Galen relates[435] that a physician named Theophilus, having fallen
ill, fancied that he saw near his bed a great number of musicians,
whose noise split his head and augmented his illness. He cried out
incessantly for them to send those people away. Having recovered his
health and good sense, he perfectly well remembered all that had been
said to him; but he could not get those players on musical instruments
out of his head, and he affirmed that they tired him to death.

In 1629, Desbordes, valet-de-chambre of Charles IV., Duke of Lorraine,
was accused of having hastened the death of the Princess Christ